NORWALK – A former Bellflower High School track and girls’ basketball coach pleaded no contest today to molesting a teenage girl over a five-year period starting when she was 13.

Bryan E. Shepherd, 49, entered the plea before Norwalk Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza, who scheduled March 25 for sentencing. Deputy District Attorney Jessica Tillson said that under terms of a negotiated settlement of the case, Shepherd will be sentenced to 28 years in state prison.

The defendant specifically pleaded no contest to one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child and two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child.

Shepherd was charged on Dec. 21, 2011. The case was moving to trial and today’s plea came at a pretrial hearing. He has been in custody since his Dec. 20, 2011, arrest by investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Special Victims Bureau.

Although Shepherd was a high school coach, authorities said the crimes did not occur at the school. The victim was molested from the time she was 13 in 2005 until she was 17 in 2010.